First Tennessee raises dividend by 33 percent

First Tennessee bank logo
First Tennessee bank logo

The parent company of First Tennessee Bank is boosting its quarterly dividend payments by a third and expanding its stock repurchase program after giving most of its 4,300 employees a $1,000 bonus check this month.

First Horizon National Corp. said today it is increasing its quarterly cash dividend on common stock to 12 cents per share, up 33 percent from the previous 9-cents-per-share quarterly payment. The higher dividend will be paid April 2 to the common shareholders of record on March 9.

In addition, the First Horizon board today approved a new $250 million common share purchase program that will expire on Jan. 31, 2020. The board terminated the older program, which was originally announced in 2014, and still had approximately $190 million remaining in available share purchase authority.

Last week, First Horizon reported its pre-tax income last year was up 36 percent and the bank reported total earnings per share in 2017 of $1.11, excluding one-time tax adjustments and acquisition expenses.

First Horizon completed its biggest merger ever in the fourth quarter of 2017 with the completion of its purchase of the North Carolina-based Capital Bank and First Horizon Bryan Jordan said the bank expects to also benefit from the cut in corporate income taxes this year.

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